READ THIS FIRST: THIS IS THE AWARD FOR PLAYERS OF FFS FRIENDLY WORLD CUP ONLY AND DOES NOT INCLUDE PEOPLE FROM FFS EURO 2012! THERE HAS BEEN A SEPARATE AWARD FOR THAT. THANK YOU.You can tell it’s a good week when you can’t even include in the honourable mentions highly credible punts which registered some success – players such as Krohn-Dehli, Obraniak, Gerrard, Larsson, Welbeck and Coentrao. Even picking Rami over Lescott… you know who you are. No, this week was a bumper week. An absolutely huge week. I almost didn’t want to create a winner because that meant creating losers… fortunately, I quickly snapped out of that and returned to being a cold-hearted, merciless tyrant.I judged the award by the rules posted here.

To recap:A “successful gamble” is defined as a single player choice that returns an unexpectedly high number of points. The awards will be given on these criteria:- Underappreciation- Overachievement- Underdog team- CaptaincyHonourable Mentions:- Teddy, James_Fitz for picking Jakub ‘Kuba’ Blaszczykowski (8 points) who smashed a sublime curling equaliser for Poland against Russia. A brave pick who flew under the radar relative to options such as Lewandowski and the Russian attack.- Djerbil for being the only person to pick a goal from a thoroughly unlikely source in the French midfield – Yohan Cabaye (9 points). Nominally the passer, Cabaye popped up a with a great finish to seal the win for the French – and while this is not considered in the award, he was a coat of paint away from grabbing a second goal which quite possibly would have won Djerbil the award.- Optimus, JKisthe1 picked a striker who was not nailed on, commonly regarded as mentally broken and in a team that could quite literally score from anywhere. Fernando Torres (10 points) grabbed two goals in the demolition of Ireland. The only major detracting factors were that Spain were the complete opposite of an underdog team, and captaincy would have helped of course.And now for the winner. Or should I say, winners? Yes, three people – three from thirty-two – made what I regard as the most successful gamble of the week. As such, they share the title of Matchday 2 winners.JKisthe1, Forca Inter and Eoin not only picked but captained Gomez (C) (10×2 points) who fired two beautifully-taken goals in the crunch match against Netherlands. With a limited competitive record for Germany thus far, and his striker starting spot only just won, all three of these managers captained him against one of the pre-tournament favourites in a match that was extremely difficult to call.Thank you for your incredible efforts on Matchday 2. I don’t know what the heck you guys are going to do on Matchday 3 – once you’ve been to the Dehli you wonder if you can go anywhere better – but I’m sure The Light Knight will enjoy finding out as he returns to write your reviews.Stay tuned for our Day 1 Report and preview of Day 2!